How To Travel The World Without Quitting Your Job!

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These days it can feel like the internet is full to the brim of professional travellers who have quit their jobs to travel and explore the world. It's all too easy to read incredible stories of how people how become digital nomads, who live in a different country each month, and think you should be doing the same.

However, it's not the only way to explore the world, and tick off those bucket list destinations. You might love to travel, but also have career goals, or future plans - and you can definitely do them all at the same time! It doesn't have to be one or the other. Exploring the world can be done alongside a full-time career, even in a 35-40 hour week 'office job'.

I have a full-time career and use my annual leave to try and explore as much as I can. In 2017, I visited 9 different countries, and did a week-long road trip around the south of England. I went skiing for the first time in Andorra, where I also fitted in a day to explore Barcelona. I've been on amazing weekends away to Wales, Luxembourg and Amsterdam, and I spent a week each exploring Norway, Greece and Portugal. I was also lucky enough to spend 3 days in Bruges to celebrate my birthday.

That doesn't typically sound like someone who has a full-time job, but long gone are the days where you have to stick to one holiday a year! Now that's not me purposefully boasting, or wanting to be a show-off, but it's to show that many people can do the same if they make travel a priority.

In the UK, full time workers (majority of the time) are fortunate enough to be entitled to 25 days of paid annual leave a year. That's 5 working weeks! Then if you can include bank holidays (yes, it may be more expensive) you can stretch those holidays to go even further. Depending on where you work, you can even build up additional time off in lieu, take unpaid leave, or perhaps even buy additional days.

In 2017 in the UK, by using the Easter and May bank holidays to your advantage, it was possible to have an 18 day holiday by only using 9 days of your annual leave. The same thing will happen again in 2019 and I already have ideas of how I'd like to spend it! It's all about being savvy.

Weekends away are also an incredible way to travel and use very little (if any) of your paid annual holiday. Just by taking a Friday off work gives you a 3 day window for a mini break (Hello, Amsterdam!).

I love my career, and I also love travelling. Quitting my job simply wasn't an option for me. Sure, I will no longer be able to do a three-month backpacking trip around South America, but can I still travel to the likes of Peru, Bolivia or Chile? Of course I can! I just need to plan my adventures slightly differently - and you can too!

What are your thoughts on this topic? How do you balance a career and travelling?